Education as an Industry. A Conference of the Universities-National Bureau Committee for Economic Research. Universities-National Bureau Conference Series No. 28.

Froomkin, Joseph T., Ed.; And Others

This volume contains eleven papers that were presented at the National Bureau of Economic Research's conference, "Education as an Industry," held in Chicago in June 1971. The focus of the conference was on the internal working of the education system--its production functions, cost functions, and productivitiy. Part 1 contains four papers dealing with education production. Three estimate educational production functions at a number of levels using a variety of measures of output. The fourth is a detailed critique of the methodology and relevance of educational production-function analysis. Part 2 contains two early attempts to apply the methods of economic analysis to problems of compensatory education for disadvantaged students. Part 3 contains studies of problems of higher education. One paper examines factors influencing demand for higher education by using newly developed empirical techniques for estimating choice probabilities over descrete sets of options. The next three papers deal with the costs of higher education. The concluding paper discusses policy issues that are illuminated by research that views education as an industry and suggests lines that further research should take. (Author/IRT)